"Churchill addressing the crowd at Durban" - A vintage photograph of then-25-year-old Winston S. Churchill on the afternoon of 23 December 1899, addressing a crowd in Durban, South Africa, after his daring escape during the Boer War and during the first blush of fame that would propel him into elected office for the first time.
Durban, South Africa: 23 December 1899. This vintage photograph of then-25-year-old Winston S. Churchill captures him on the afternoon of 23 December 1899, immediately after his daring escape during the Boer War and during the first blush of fame that would propel him into elected office to begin his long and storied political career.
The gelatin silver print measures 9.5 x 7.25 inches. Condition is very good, the paper complete and the image clean, image flaws seeming inherent to the original negative rather than the result of age or wear. The verso – apparently erroneously - indicates the probability that this is an original press photo; the verso features various pencil marks, as well as an inked caption in three lines: “Speech-Making, At The Age | of 25, When Prospective M. P. For | OLDHAM.” The image has long – plausibly very long – been framed, secured by tape at the verso edges to a light charcoal mat within a 14.25 x 11.625 inches black wood frame with gilt edge. Inked on the back of the frame is a repetition of the erroneous caption above the underlined words “ORIGINAL PHOTO”.
This exact image fills p.313 of 1983’s The Last Lion by William Manchester, who attributes this photograph as “Churchill addressing the crowd at Durban”.
In October 1899, the second Boer War erupted between the descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa and the British. Churchill, an itinerant, adventure-seeking young cavalry officer and war correspondent, swiftly found himself in South Africa with the 21st Lancers and an assignment as press correspondent to the Morning Post. Not long after, on 15 November 1899, Churchill was captured during a Boer ambush of an armored train. His daring and dramatic escape less than a month later made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.
Following Churchill’s escape from the State Model School in Pretoria, the Boers offered a reward for his capture “dead or alive”. Churchill was sheltered by John Howard at the Transvaal and Delagoa Bay Collieries, seventy-five miles east of Pretoria near the town of Witbank. After spending several days hiding in the mines, Churchill was smuggled aboard a train carrying a consignment of bales of wool whose owner, Charles Burnham, came along and helped protect Churchill’s secrecy. Eventually the train carried Churchill to Lourenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa. From there Churchill boarded the steamer ship Indura, which sailed for Durban.
Often fixing the precise day a vintage photograph was captured can be challenging. In this case, certainty to within hours is possible. “On the afternoon of… December 23, the Induna docked at Durban. Churchill arrived to find that he had become world famous overnight… The headlines of the world’s press creamed the news: telegrams poured upon him: he was hailed in Durban as a popular hero. Elated by his ovation from the Durban crowd, one of the most loyal communities of the British Empire,” Churchill addressed the Durban crowd.
A well-known image captures Churchill from a distance on the steps of the Durban town hall, his countenance, clothing, and posture identical to those in this image, which may have been taken closer up and from a different angle. That same afternoon, “took the train… to Pietermaritzburg, where he stayed the night as the guest of the Governor of Natal, and from where on the following morning he set out for the Headquarters of Sir Redvers Buller at Chieveley.”
Churchill returned from South Africa in July 1900 and spent the summer campaigning hard in Oldham. Churchill had lost the Oldham by-election – his first attempt at Parliament – in July 1899. Since then, as Arthur Balfour (who became Prime Minister in 1902) put it in a 30 August 1900 letter, the young Churchill had had “fresh opportunities - admirably taken advantage of – for shewing the public of what stuff you are made.” Indeed; Churchill won his first seat in Parliament on 1 October 1900 in the so-called "khaki election".
Churchill's political career would last two thirds of a century, see him occupy Cabinet office during each of the first six decades of the twentieth century, carry him twice to the premiership and, further still, into the annals of history as a preeminent statesman. All lay still ahead of Churchill when this image was captured, at the beginning of the fame that would propel him into office and attend him for the rest of his life.
Please note that this framed photograph will be packed with care and shipped at cost.
References: Manchester, The Last Lion; Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, Vol. I; Hillsdale College, The Churchill Project. Item #008887
Price: $1,250.00